(With black art, Papageno manipulates nets and captures birds and when Tamino contemplates the portrait of Pamina, she literally appears out of the frame. The technique is superbly mastered and Simon Wilkinson's lighting contributes to the miracle.)

(Everything depends on meticulousness: lighting of surgical precision, little magic playing on the invisible, cleverly choreographed crowd scenes, seductive visual effects like a box with mirrors where the protagonists become a multitude ...)